Big banks and CSL lead healthy market rally

AUSTRALIAN shares ended the week with a rally led by the big banks and market heavyweight CSL.

The ASX200 index closed up 28 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 6195.2 points, while the All Ordinaries was up 27.4 points, or 0.44 per cent, at 6280.9.

“We had a good run in the morning and as you go into the afternoon there’s a bit of profit taking,” Blue Ocean Equities analyst Mathan Somasundaram said. “Overall it’s a positive day.” Health care led gainers, up a collective 1.21 per cent, with global pharmaceutical company CSL up 1.52 per cent to $197.19.

Most sectors were up, aside from mining and telecom shares, which were down slightly.

The big banks were all up: Westpac gained 0.68 per cent to $26.51; NAB was up 0.52 per cent to $25.09; CBA gained 0.42 per cent to $71.43; and ANZ rose 0.26 per cent to $26.52.

BHP was down 0.19 per cent to $37.61 but most other miners were up, with Rio Tinto gaining 0.72 per cent to $94.17.

Gold miners were down, however, as the price of the precious metal dropped, and shares in St Barbara crashed 29.25 per cent to $3.29, a 14month low, after the gold miner said continued production at its historic Gwalia mine in Western Australia would have to rely on trucking ore rather than hoisting it out.

Navitas was up 2.49 per cent to $5.76 after AustralianSuper, private equity firm BGH and the education provider’s own former CEO Rod Jones offered to buy the company for $2.3 billion.

The Aussie dollar was hovering just above 71 US cents last night, down from 71.46 US cents on Thursday.